7.2 Sleep In College

Operating on little sleep seems to be an expected—and accepted—part of college life for many students. In a large study of college students, researchers found that, even though about 10% of students self-rated their sleep as very good and 60% fairly good, many had short sleep duration and experienced poor sleep quality (Orzech et al., 2011). In other words, students view short sleep duration and poor quality sleep as the norm during college years, which in turn impacts a general understanding of what qualifies as good sleep.

Compared to non-student adults in their 20s, college students tend to go to bed later and get up earlier (Tsai & Li, 2004) and only about one in five college students report getting adequate sleep to feel rested at least five days per week (American College Health Association, 2018). Studies have indicated that an estimated 25-50% of students get insufficient sleep during the week (Oginska & Pokorski, 2006), and approximately 20% of students also have short sleep duration on weekends (Orzech et al., 2011; Lund, Reider, Whiting, & Prichard, 2010). About 35% of students don’t go to sleep until 3 a.m. at least once a week and about 20% of students report missing an entire weeknight of sleep at least once a month (Oginska & Pokorski, 2006). Further, while 56% of students report being interested in receiving information about sleep difficulties, only 30% actually report receiving information on sleep topics from their college or university (American College Health Association, 2018). All-in-all, this suggests that while sleep-related concerns are common among college students, this health topic isn’t prioritized by many institutions of higher education despite it being an essential part of life and daily functioning.

Quantity of sleep isn’t the only problem; sleep difficulties are well documented among college students. For the general adult population, sleep difficulties can result from many factors including exposure to light, excess or chronic stress, substance use, poor sleep environment, and changes in schedules. Many studies suggest that college students experience a decreased level of sleep quality compared with the general adult population (Brown et al., 2001).

Self-reported assessments of personal sleep behaviors show that college students tend to minimize problematic sleep habits, perhaps in part because when they do get adequate sleep, it is good sleep! It could also be that they are comparing themselves with peers who report more severe sleep behaviors related to duration and quality (Orzech et al., 2011). This type of miscalculation is common with many health-related behaviors; we tend to assume what we are observing is the norm, when in reality our personal observations might not be representative of what is actually typical. For example, if a student comments or even brags that they stayed up until 1 am cramming for an exam, this might make their classmates believe that this is common practice, when in reality most students went to bed much earlier. When was the last time you heard someone say “Wow, I got a full seven hours of sleep last night. It was awesome!”?